sleeping well

Mike and I needed a new mattress and after much debate, decided on a Sleep Number bed! He and I had different ideas of how hard/soft we wanted a new mattress to be, and this seemed like a great solution. We settling into our 'numbers' (and if you're wondering - I'm around a 40 and he's closer to a 70), and it's hard not to play with the settings every night, but I know I need to, literally, sleep on it, for a bit before I start adjusting things. But if you really think about how much time you spend in your bed, comfort is pretty important!

I had been hedging on finishing a certain baby gift because I can't find the rattle and wanted to fill it with poly pellets, but couldn't find them in any of the stores nearby. So I tried to figure out what else I could use.

The fill needed to be heavy, small, preferably pretty uniform, definitely child friendly and have the ability to get wet so the toy can be washed/spot cleaned or chewed on. Washable and non-toxic were my two biggest concerns. I went on Ravelry to see what my other options might be. After reading many various suggestions and looking around at what people had used, I gave up, and decided just to go back to the rattle idea and off I went to the pet store to buy another. After looking around the store for a bit I was inspired - why not use aquarium gravel! It's small, pellet sized, can get wet, is non-toxic and would allow me to fill with any amount needed - I'm so excited about it!!

So today I'm back to work finishing the gift and will be ready to send it out soon. (The recipient's mother is not on Ravelry, so she won't be able to see the link, but I'll post pictures as soon as it's on it's way). I worked on it all weekend, and it's coming out cuter than I expected, I just need to finish some ears...

Although I'm really trying to finish up all my UFO's - things keep calling to me to cast on. I have some lovely yarn I want to make another pair of smoochy socks out of:



And I really need to start on Mike's Hat. I crocheted Mike a hat a few years ago, but the 'denim blue' yarn I made it out of turned out to have more of purple cast and it's a bit too small. So I offered to make him another, and had him choose the yarn for it. He selected some beautiful "rustic wool" (doesn't the yarn sound like Mike?) in an olive, sienna/rust and charcoal, then he drew out a picture of the type of hat he wanted. I've looked on-line and on Ravelry to see if I can find a similar pattern, but I'm thinking I'm just going to free-knit it with some basic guidelines and see how it goes.

Plus, I've finished my hand warmers (and it has gotten chilly enough again for me to use them) - now I need to make a matching hat to go with them! But I want to finish Mike's hat first. So I need to finish what I've started and then prioritize appropriately.